Mahomedali Currim Chagla (30 September 1900 – 9 February 1981) was an Indian
jurist
A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...
, diplomat, and
Cabinet Minister
A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ‘prime minister’, ...
who served as
Chief Justice of the
Bombay High Court
The High Court of Bombay is the high court of the states of Maharashtra and Goa in India, and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. It is seated primarily at Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), and is one of the ol ...
from 1947 to 1958.
Early life and education
Born on 30 September 1900 in
Bombay to a well-off Gujarati
Ismaili
Isma'ilism ( ar, الإسماعيلية, al-ʾIsmāʿīlīyah) is a branch or sub-sect of Shia Islam. The Isma'ili () get their name from their acceptance of Imam Isma'il ibn Jafar as the appointed spiritual successor (imām) to Ja'far al-Sa ...
Khoja family, Chagla suffered a lonely childhood owing to his mother's death in 1905. His childhood was spent in their family mansion in near Nagdevi Street and Janjiker Lane, Khokha Bazar in Pydhonie. He later bought a mansion in Malabar Hill in 1934. He was educated at St. Xavier's High School and College in Bombay, after which he went on to study Modern History at
Lincoln College, Oxford
Lincoln College (formally, The College of the Blessed Mary and All Saints, Lincoln) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, situated on Turl Street in central Oxford. Lincoln was founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, the ...
, from 1918–21, taking a BA in 1921 and MA in 1925. In 1922, he was admitted to the Bar of the
Bombay High Court
The High Court of Bombay is the high court of the states of Maharashtra and Goa in India, and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. It is seated primarily at Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), and is one of the ol ...
, where he worked with such illuminaries as Sir
Jamshedji Kanga and
Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who would one day become the founder of
Pakistan.
Career
Initially, like many nationalists, Chagla idolized Jinnah due to his then nationalistic views and held membership in the
Muslim League. He worked under Jinnah in Bombay for seven years, often, as he recounts in his autobiography in a state of penury. However, he severed all ties to Jinnah after Jinnah began to work for the cause of a separate Muslim state.
Chagla, along with others, then founded the Muslim Nationalist Party in Bombay, a party which was ignored and pushed aside in the independence struggle. He was appointed Professor of law to
Government Law College, Bombay
The Government Law College, Mumbai, (GLC Mumbai), founded in 1855, is the one of the oldest law schools in Asia. The college, affiliated to the University of Mumbai, is run by the Government of Maharashtra.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak ,Pratibha Pa ...
in 1927, where he worked with Dr.
B.R. Ambedkar
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (14 April 1891 – 6 December 1956) was an Indian jurist, economist, social reformer and political leader who headed the committee drafting the Constitution of India from the Constituent Assembly debates, served a ...
. He was appointed a judge to
Bombay High Court
The High Court of Bombay is the high court of the states of Maharashtra and Goa in India, and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. It is seated primarily at Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), and is one of the ol ...
in 1941, becoming Chief Justice in 1948 and serving in that capacity to 1958. All through, he continued to write and speak strongly for the Indian freedom cause and against the communal two nation ideology.
In 1946, Chagla was part of the first Indian delegation to the UN. From 4 October to 10 December 1956, Chagla served as Acting Governor of the then state of Bombay, later broken up into the states of
Gujarat and
Maharashtra
Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...
. Following his tenure as Chief Justice, he served as the one-man commission that examined the
Finance Minister of India,
T. T. Krishnamachari
Tiruvellore Thattai Krishnamachari (1899–1974) was an Indian politician who served as Finance Minister from 1956 to 1958 and from 1964 to 1966. He was also a founding member of the first governing body of the National Council of Applied Econo ...
, over the controversial
Haridas Mundhra
Haridas Mundhra ( hi, हरिदास मूंदड़ा; died January 6, 2018) was a Kolkata, Calcutta-based stock speculator who was found guilty and imprisoned in the first big financial scandal of newly independent India in the 1950s.
...
LIC insurance scandal, which forced Krishnamachari's resignation as Finance Minister. Krishnamachari was quite close to Nehru, who became intensely angry at Chagla for his revelations of TTK's part in the affair, though he later forgave Chagla. From September 1957 to 1959, Chagla served as ad hoc judge to the
International Court of Justice at
The Hague.
After retirement he served as Indian ambassador to the US from 1958 to 1961. Chagla then served as
Indian High Commissioner in the UK from April 1962 to September 1963. Immediately on his return, he was asked to be a Cabinet Minister, which he accepted, and he served as
Education Minister from 1963 to 1966, then served as the
Minister for External Affairs of India from November 1966 to September 1967, after which he left government service. He then spent the remaining years of his life actively, continuing to practice law into his seventies.
As Minister of Education under
Jawaharlal Nehru, Chagla was distraught by the quality of education in government schools:
:Our Constitution fathers did not intend that we just set up hovels, put students there, give untrained teachers, give them bad textbooks, no playgrounds, and say, we have complied with Article 45 and primary education is expanding... They meant that real education should be given to our children between the ages of 6 and 14
[Right to Education SSA Final Report]
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (), or SSA, is an Indian Government programme aimed at the universalisation of Elementary education "in a time bound manner", the 86th Amendment to the Constitution of India making free and compulsory education to children ...
, Ministry of Human Resource Development, retrieved 3 April 2015
Personal life and family
In 1930, Chagla married Mehrunissa Dharsi Jivraj, a lady of his own community and similar family background. Their marriage was harmonious and conventional. The couple had four children, two sons, Jehangir (b. 1934) and Iqbal (b. 1939) and two daughters, Husnara (b. 1932) and Nuru (b. 193x). Their son Iqbal Chagla became a lawyer; with his wife Roshan, he has a daughter (M.C. Chagla's granddaughter) Rohiqa, who is the widow of
Cyrus Mistry
Cyrus Pallonji Mistry (4 July 1968 – 4 September 2022) was an Indian businessman. He was the chairman of the Tata Group, an Indian business conglomerate, from 2012 to 2016. He was the sixth chairman of the group, and only the second (af ...
, the former chairman of
Tata Sons
Tata Sons Private Limited is the parent company of the Tata Group and holds the bulk of shareholding in the Tata group of companies including their land holdings across India, tea estates and steel plants. It is a privately owned conglomerate of ...
in the period 2014–2016. Iqbal's son Riaz (b. c. 1970) was himself appointed a judge of the Bombay High Court in July 2017.
Chagla's younger daughter, Nuru, married Subbaram Swaminathan, a south Indian
Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
gentleman, son of politician
Ammu Swaminathan and brother of captain
Lakshmi Swaminathan
Lakshmi Sahgal () (born Lakshmi Swaminathan; 24 October 1914 – 23 July 2012) was a revolutionary of the Indian independence movement, an officer of the Indian National Army, and the Minister of Women's Affairs in the Azad Hind government. Lak ...
and
Mrinalini Sarabhai.
Mehrunissa Dharsi Jivraj died in November 1961. Chagla survived her by nineteen years, dying in February 1981.
Last years and death
In 1973, Chagla published his autobiography, Roses in December, with the help of his son Iqbal. He vehemently protested against the
Indian Emergency. He died on 9 February 1981, at the age of 80 of heart failure. He had been unwell for several years, and had suffered four
heart attacks. True to his active and energetic nature, he had not let his health slow him down. On the day of his death, he went as usual to his club in Bombay and had a good time with his friends. He then slipped away to the dressing room and there, peacefully died. According to his wish, he was cremated instead of having a traditional Muslim burial. The Bombay High Court was closed to show respect for him, and several speeches were made in his memory, including one by former Prime Minister,
Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee (; 25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018) was an Indian politician who served three terms as the 10th prime minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months fr ...
.
In 1985, a statue of Chagla was unveiled and placed within the High Court outside the Chief Justice's Court where he once served. The inscription on the statue plinth reads:
"''A great judge, a great citizen, and, above all, a great human being.''"
Further facts
Though born a Muslim, Chagla was more of an agnostic.
The surname "Chagla" was not his original surname. In Chagla's autobiography, he recounted that in his youth, he was known as "Merchant" as both his father and grandfather were merchants. Hating the name due to its associations with money, he went to his grandfather one day and asked him as to what he should call himself. His grandfather promptly replied "Chagla" as his father, Chagla's great-grandfather, had had Chagla as his pet name, which in the
Kutchi language means "favourite". Chagla promptly adopted the new surname.
References
Further reading
''Roses In December, an autobiography'', M.C. Chagla, Tenth Edition, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 2000,
External links
M C Chagla
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chagla, MC
1900 births
1981 deaths
Politicians from Mumbai
20th-century Indian judges
High Commissioners of India to the United Kingdom
Indian barristers
Indian Ismailis
Indian agnostics
Judges of the Bombay High Court
Ambassadors of India to the United States
Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford
Founders of Indian schools and colleges
Rajya Sabha members from Maharashtra
Ministers for External Affairs of India
Education Ministers of India
Members of the Cabinet of India
Leaders of the Rajya Sabha
Chief Justices of the Bombay High Court
All India Muslim League members
Indian Shia Muslims
Gujarati people
20th-century Indian lawyers
20th-century Indian politicians